A Tale of Two Murders

On the night of October 3, 1922, as Edith Thompson and her husband, Percy, were walking home from the theatre, a man sprang out of the darkness and stabbed Percy to death. The assailant was none other than Edith’s lover, Freddy Bywaters.

When the police discovered his relationship with Edith, she denied knowledge of the attack but was arrested as his accomplice. Her passionate love letters to Bywaters, read out loud at the ensuing trial, sealed her fate, even though Bywaters insisted Edith had no part in planning the murder. They were both hanged. Freddy was demonstrably guilty, but was Edith?

This engrossing examination of the Ilford murder, which became a legal cause ce’le’bre in the 1920s, charts the course of the liaison in shattering detail and with masterful emotional insight, investigating what this troubling case tells us about perceptions of women, innocence, and guilt.

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